Moments
by Divide et Imper
Summary: Cassandra Fraiser takes time to live in the moment. A collection of one-shots involving characters from both series, takes place during Season 4 of Atlantis.
1. Black

**.018 – Black**

Cassandra Frasier leans cautiously backward over the railing of her apartment terrace, breathing a sigh of relief when it doesn't creak or wobble under her weight. She tilts her head back and looks at the expanse of sky above her. She purses her lips and squints her eyes, tilting her head in different positions before letting out a sigh of defeat. In the city, it is nearly impossible to see stars. The most Cassie can manage are one or two pin pricks of light; but even those are made dim by the layers of smog and polluted atmosphere.

Most nights, Cassie would simply shrug her shoulders, go back inside, and finish up some translations before she goes to sleep.

Tonight, however, Cassie has a feeling between her shoulder blades; something that she knows won't go away unless she can see the stars. She levers herself off the railing, and with one last searching glance at the sky, goes back into her apartment. Instead of doing work or going to sleep, she moves quickly around the small space – getting clothing and shoes on before grabbing her keys and leaving her apartment all together.

Twenty minutes later, Cassie is in her car and rooting through her glove compartment. She finally gets her hands on the state map she keeps there in case of emergencies and scans the various notes in pen before she finds the dot she's looking for. She traces a finger over the highway routes; mentally reviewing them to be sure she knows the way. Satisfied, she buckles her seatbelt and starts the car.

It takes her three hours and two stops to check directions before she reaches her destination.

Cassie smiles as she exits her car; the gravel of the driveway slides with each one of her steps as she makes her way up to the cabin. It takes her a few moments to find the spare key on the top of the doorframe, and then she enters the darkness of the cabin.

It still smells like pine and fish, even though she's fairly certain no one's been there since the end of summer. She brushes her fingers carefully against the walls, navigating her way slowly in the dark to the stairs. She makes her way slowly up the stairs, through the hallway, and even slower still up the ladder to the hatch on the ceiling that gives her access to the roof. She pulls herself nimbly up, and crawls over to the telescope that's carefully perched in the centre and pointed at the sky. With a grin, she lays herself carefully down and looks up through the eyepiece.

The silence of the night is broken by a shrill ring, and Cassie fumbles with the cell phone in her pocket for a moment before flipping it open and putting it to her ear.

"Cass?" A low voice rumbles in her ear. "Mind telling me why Bob Thorton is phoning me in the middle of the night saying someone's broken into my cabin?"

"Jack," Cassie says with warmth and sheepishness lacing her voice. "I didn't think you'd mind. How'd you know it was me?"

"I don't mind, Kiddo," Jack says, and Cassie can hear the tiredness in his tone. "Everyone else who'd bother to visit that place is… on assignment. So now that I'm sure it's you and not some crazy burglar, I'm left wondering why you're invading my cabin when you should be sleeping in your cozy apartment in the city."

"I couldn't see the sky properly and I –" Cassie pauses, unsure how to explain. "I needed to see stars," she finishes lamely.

"What, looking up doesn't work for you anymore?" Jack grouches.

"You can't see anything in the city; it's just a field of blackness. But then I remembered you had your telescope…" Cassie trails off as she moves the telescope a bit further to the right, and magnifies it as best as she can before settling under the eye piece again. There is a quiet moment between them and Cassie can almost hear the gears turning in Jack's brain as he tries to figure out why she's there.

"What are you looking at?" Curiosity laces Jack's tone, and Cassie's lips tug upwards into a smile.

"Sam." She says.

There's a pause.

"Cass, Sam's in the Pegasus Galaxy – my telescope can't pick that up, even if you pointed straight at it, all you would see is darkness." He replies.

"I know."

"So what are you looking at?"

"Black."

Jack doesn't say anything to that, but Cassie thinks he understands.

The next night, Cassie is stretched out once more on the roof of Jack's cabin; the telescope pointed at the spot in the sky the Pegasus Galaxy would be if you could see it. Beside her, Jack opens a beer and peers through the eyepiece before taking a sip and handing it to Cassie.

They both take comfort in seeing black.


	2. Strangers

**.025 – Strangers**

"That looks awful."

Cassie's eyes widen as she realises she's said the words aloud. A blush moves swiftly across her freckled cheeks, but she tilts her chin up defiantly as the tall man swings back around. She clutches the stack of books she borrowed – ok, _stole _– from Daniel's office, and ferverently hopes that he's not as terrifying as his height and stature make her think.

"What?" He almost barks the word out, his stance rigid and wary.

"Um," Cassie manages to say, gulping slightly. "You're going with Colonel Sheppard, right?" The man gives her a wary nod, and she finds the courage to offer a slight smile. "Well, no offence, but Hawaiian shirts don't generally go over well at wakes."

"I found this in a closet," The man looks down with a frown, and Cassie relaxes as his tone is more confused than hostile. He doesn't look like any definition of military by Earth standards, but Cassie knows that doesn't mean he isn't. The Hawaiian shirt actually reminds her of Teal'c and his attempts to blend in as 'Uncle Murray'. Unlike Teal'c, this man has long dreads held back by a band, with black tattoos in various locations. "What should I be wearing to a … wake?"

"Black. Not like, all black; that's depressing," Cassie tilts her head, and narrows her gaze at the tall man before her. "Something simple. A black shirt, some jeans… that would do it."

"Who are you?" The question comes out of no where, and Cassie blinks for a moment.

"Cassandra, Cassandra Fraiser," she shifts the books in her arms a bit. "Call me Cassie, everyone does."

Before she can ask his name, a page comes over the intercom.

"Dr. Fraiser to the conference room, repeat, Dr. Fraiser to the conference room."

"Shoot," hisses Cassie, "I completely forgot about SG – 12's debrief. I gotta go – don't forget to change! Black shirt, jeans; you can't go wrong!" She turns and sets off at a run down the corridor, leaving the tall man behind as he frowns down at the brightly coloured shirt.

Later, Cassie is hustling down the corridor while trying not to drop the jello that is precariously balanced with a letter and a video tape. She is too busy looking down at her load to see the dark shape that steps out in front of her.

"Whoa," The man she barrelled into grips her gently by the arms as she sways from the impact. She looks up into the tall man's eyes and stammers an apology. It seems that he took her advice, as he's quite smartly attired in a simple black button down dress shirt and jeans.

"Hey," She says, with a smile. "Actually, I was hoping to run into you. I was wondering if you could give something to Sam – Colonel Carter for me. It's nothing too important – just a letter from Mark, a video from me and – "

"What," asks the man incredulously, "is _that_?" He frowns as he takes the items from Cassie; the wobbling blue mass in the container captivating his attention. He waves the container back and forth, giving a childlike smile when it jiggles in time to the movement.

"It's called Jello. It's Sam's favourite. Her last letter mentioned that your galaxy doesn't serve it, so I made a small batch up," Cassie feels a blush moving over her face again, and clears her throat. "Well, that's all really. I have to run – some poor rookie picked up a rock and now he gives off an electromagnetic field. Since I'm the only one on base who can read that strain of ancient while Dr. Jackson is off-world, I have the dubious honour of figuring out the off switch. Say hi to Sam for me!" Cassie hurries away as she can.

It occurs to her only after he's left the base that she doesn't even know his name, and she entrusted the precious blue jello to him. She shakes her head with a smile before focusing on the ancient tablet in front of her.

So much for not talking to strangers.


	3. Smell

**.036 – Smell**

Cassie heard somewhere that the strongest part of a person's memories is their sense of smell.

When she was younger, her mother would bake bread while her father and brother worked in the fields. The strongest memory Cassie has of her mother is the smell of freshly baked bread that would cling to her skirt even hours after her mother finished baking. That smell and the bright yellow of her mother's hair are all that Cassie can grasp as being undeniably part of her mother. Whenever Cassie has time booked off work at the SGC, she spends at least part of it baking fresh bread in her commercial break maker in her apartment. The smell stays in her apartment for days, and Cassie likes to think that it feels like her mother is still around.

Whenever Cassie has to make her way to the infirmary, she's always hit by a wave of memory as the tang of the sterile room hits her nose. Janet, her mom on Earth, always smelled like this when she came home from being on duty. Even after a full weekend of leave, and regardless of where they ended up spending the day, that sharp clean smell followed her. A doctor's habits are hard to get rid of, even when they're not working; Janet never went anywhere without sanitizer, and was insistent on hand washing after going about public places. Sometimes, when Cassie feels particularly sad, she sits on a spare bed in the infirmary to do her work. As long as the world's not ending that week, the staff lets her be, as many still remember working with Dr. Fraiser. Cassie doesn't feel so alone when she can sit in the infirmary; sometimes she can still pretend that Janet is sitting in her office finishing up some work, and that Cassie is just waiting for her to finish. It's nice to pretend for a while.


	4. Drink

**.060 – Drink**

"Oh for cryin out loud," growls Jack as he steps into the infirmary. His eyes sweep over the members of SG – 1 and he lets out a sigh before being tackled from the side.

"Jack!" the girl that tackled him says. There's a giggle from the face buried in his shoulder, and Cassie looks up into his face with an impossibly wide smile. "I knew you'd show up. Look what we got; presents!" She releases him to stagger to the centre of the room before falling gracelessly to the floor beside a prostrate Daniel. His glasses are hanging off his face at a strange angle, sleeping with drool coming out of his mouth. Vala has draped herself over his chest and is reaching up in the air, grabbing at nothing with wide eyes.

"Sam sent us…" Cassie stops, and frowns. Her face screws up in thought the same way it did when she was a child and Jack had told her that all kids had to have a dog. "She gave us… Teal'c, what did she give us?" She turns to face the stoic Jaffa who is leaning by the door with an amused look on his face.

"Samantha Carter wished to give us a gift from her new base," Teal'c was speaking to Jack as Cassie had already forgotten she was talking to Jack and crawled over to Cam, who was sitting propped against the wall, staring into nothing and blinking repeatedly. "I believe it is Athosian wine; a drink made by one of the peoples of the Pegasus galaxy. She had cautioned that it should be drunk slowly, but Cassandra challenged Colonel Mitchell to a contest. Vala insisted on joining, and persuaded Daniel Jackson to do so as well."

"How much did they drink?" asked Jack, surveying the incredibly intoxicated members of his flagship team and the girl he had come to think of as a daughter.

"I believe they each had one bottle," Teal'c replied. "Cassandra may have had more. It seems her advanced immune system has helped her weather the effects of the drink better than the others."

Cassandra was bored of poking Cam to get a reaction, and shakily rose to her feet. She stumbled over to Jack and almost knocked him over as she collapsed into his arms.

"Jack," she mumbled, her eyes drifting shut. "I'm sleepy. I want more wine."

"I think you've had enough," chuckled Jack, as he lifted her in his arms and placed her on a bed. Teal'c took his cue and managed to get Vala to stop whatever she was doing and placed her on a bed. Jack left the Jaffa to the heftier task of lifting the two men to their beds and turned back to Cassie who was blinking her way to sleep.

"Sam?" Cassie whispered, almost asleep. "Don't leave, you promised."

"Shh," Jack smiled and brushed her dark blonde hair off of her face. "She's just out for a bit. Don't worry, I'm here, I'm not leaving."

Cassie smiled, and finally fell asleep.


	5. Fall

**.064 – Fall**

"Hey, Teal'c," Cassie smiled as she perched carefully on the picnic bench beside the big Jaffa. "Daniel told me you were taking the day off. Didn't mention exactly why you considered the park a vacation spot, though." Cassie pulled her wool coat tighter around her shivering body.

"I came to watch the trees," replied Teal'c in his matter of fact tone. Cassie frowned, glancing out at the forest in front of them before looking back at her alien friend.

"The trees?" she asked, confused. "Jack says that practically every planet you guys went to was covered in rocks and trees. Why would you want to look at them on your free time?"

"It has been many years since I have seen trees like this, Cassandra Fraiser," the man replied, amusement softening his tone slightly. "I also think O'Neill misses those rocks and trees more than he mentions."

"Years?" said Cassie, confused. Then she saw the streak of white in the Jaffa's hair, and remembered. "Oh," she said softly. Cassie grew silent, and looked at the trees for a few moments. They were changing colour with the coming of fall, and were a beautiful mix of golden browns and yellows with deep reds and burnt oranges. She found herself smiling.

"I think it is the trees that I missed most," said Teal'c softly. "we did not have the same seasons on Chulak. These memories are only from Earth."

Cassie nodded and leaned slightly against the Jaffa, troubled. They stayed silent for a few moments before she decided to tell him.

"I got a message from Sam," Cassie said, her voice hushed so the pair could still hear the wind moving through the dying leaves. "They need me to translate some things in Atlantis. They're going to bump me up to full-time staff at the SGC so I can go, according to the IOA."

"This is good news, Cassandra Fraiser," said the Jaffa, giving that half smile he had learned over the years. After his journey through time, it had become much more frequent than the smile that Cassie remembered from her childhood.

"I suppose," Cassia said. "But this means I have to move out of Denver, and into Colorado Springs. I'll lose all of my university friends, the life I've built up on Earth, all to go back to the SGC." 

Teal'c didn't say anything for a while, and Cassandra sighed and closed her eyes, breathing in the cool damp autumn air.

"Everything changes Cassandra," Teal'c said, shortening her name for the first time in her memory. "you must change with it."

Cassie looked out at the trees which were changing colour with the seasons, and thought about the many years Teal'c had spent on a ship that literally didn't change except for the people in it. She thought that she might become like her mother, and the other members of the stargate program; so fixated on going to other worlds that they hardly left their mountain base and visited their own. But she already spent most of her time at the SGC anyway, helping Daniel with his research. All that was left was to actually start going through the gate instead of being beside it. _Everything changes_ , she mused to herself.

And she watched the leaves fall.


	6. Fire

**.052 – Fire**

"It's _green_," said Cassie, her eyes wide.

"Well, yes," said Dr. Lee, tilting his head sideways.

"Bill," Cassie said slowly, never taking her eyes off the spectacle in front of her. "It's green. Not just any green, neon green. That can't be normal, even for alien fire."

"I've hypothesised that the synthetic agent being used as an ignition source must contain within it some cupric or cuprous compounds," the scientist started babbling, a fanatical glint in his eye. "I haven't been able to get a sample but – "

"Bill," Cassie interrupted.

"Yes Dr. Fraiser?" asked the scientist, blinking slightly.

"It's going towards your laptop," she said, pointing at the moving green light.

"It must sense the electronic signals - " began Dr. Lee excitedly.

"Bill," she said again, sounding more amused. "Super sentient, ancient devised, mobile _green_ fire is moving towards your laptop, and all you can think about is how it works?"

"Well yes," said the scientist, puffing up indignantly. "It may be one of the most important technological finds we've gathered from the Pegasus galaxy. I'm glad it was sent to Midway by Dr. McKay for me to study."

"Well," said Cassie backing away from the desk slowly. "I'd be more concerned with the fact that the 'fire' is _eating_ your laptop."

"Oh," said Bill, as the station's fire system activated, and the sprinklers went off drenching the two doctors. The fire however, didn't go out, merely moved in its strange way back to the casing that Dr. McKay had sent it in. "I didn't think of that."


	7. Death

**.030 – Death**

Cassie stood before the little stone marker, the wind blowing her short black dress around her knees.

She didn't know how long she'd been standing there – for all she cared it could have been minutes, hours, or days. She felt absolutely nothing. Just a clean void where her emotions should be. Her hair whipped gently against her blank face as she stood staring at the piece of stone.

Dimly, she registered a presence come up behind her, smelling of books, parchment and dust. _Daniel_, a small part of her remembered, but she dismissed it like everything else. The rain that was pelting her white skin should hurt, should be freezing her, but she felt rather like she had been submerged under water and was just floating listlessly in nothingness.

"Cass," Daniel began, his tone cautious. "I'm sorry about – "

"Why," she broke in, her voice flat and emotionless.

"Well, you obviously loved him," said Daniel, a bit shocked at the girl's cold attitude.

"It's just a dog," she said in that same voice, shrugging a thin shoulder.

"Cass," Daniel said softly, placing a warm hand on her shoulder, "Cass, what's wrong?"

"It's just a dog," she said again. This time, her voice trembled, and wavered. As though the touch of Daniel's hand had snapped her from whatever protective state she was in, she curled her arms around herself as tears ran down her cheeks. "Why am I so sad? It's just my dog. It's not like - " she paused, and tried to swallow around the large lump forming in her throat. "It's not like it's Mom, or Sam, or Jack… just a stupid dumb dog. Just Homer."

Her voice broke as she spoke her pet's name, and she began sobbing. Not the quiet sniffles of the child that Teal'c had found in the ruins of a dead world, but the gut deep wails of a broken soul. Daniel tugged on her shoulder until she had turned into his heartfelt embrace.

"Why," she sobbed into Daniel's shoulder. "Why does everyone leave me?"

"Shhh," soothed Daniel, as he patted the girl he though of like a niece on the back gently. "I'm not leaving."

"Everyone says that," Cassie looked up through tear laced lashes, her features twisted in grief and anger. "My parents, Janet, Sam, Jack – and you all leave. All of you, go away and leave me alone. What's wrong with me that you can't stay; _why does everyone leave?_" She screamed it in his face and began beating her fists softly on his chest.

"Cass –" said Daniel, at a loss for what to say.

"Everyone leaves," Cassie whispered, as she laid her head on Daniel's shoulder and let her tears run down silently once more. "I left. I left him in that centre, and I come back and he's gone. How many times will the ones I love die when I can't say goodbye? Why do they go where I can't follow?"

Daniel remained silent, knowing that she didn't expect an answer. The two stood there in the rain for a long time. He knew this was about more than a dog; although Cassie had loved him from the moment Jack had put him into her arms. Daniel knew he couldn't fix this problem for the little girl their team had adopted – this problem would only solve itself in time, weather it was at Sam's funeral, Jack, Teal'c, even him. They would all die eventually and (God willing) leave this young woman behind. She would have to face it eventually.

Even SG-1 couldn't cheat death forever.


	8. Taste

**.039 – Taste**

"Don't touch that," snapped Rodney McKay as he was hunched over a laptop in the remains of Sam's lab in the SGC.

"Why," asked Cassie, who paused with her hand a centimetre away from the strange ancient device from the Pegasus Galaxy. It was the contraption that had let loose the mysterious green fire a few weeks ago that had a penchant for snacking on electrical systems. "I though you disabled the fire producing thingy."

"Oh I'm sorry," said McKay in a sickly sweet voice, "I'm sure you know best. After all, I only have a billion times your intelligence and scientific background, oh glorified dictionary. You don't touch it because I said, _don't touch it_."

"Fine," said Cassie, rolling her eyes as she leaned back from the rather interesting device. "What does this one do, then?" She picked up another object amongst the many strewn about the table.

"No one knows, and hey – _put that down_," McKay hissed, snatching the small cylinder away from his lab partner. "God, you're worse than Sheppard. Does the natural ancient gene make you guys all stupid or just insane?"

"Does your IQ make you rude, or is that just a personality deficiency?" Cassie snapped back, giving a small glare to the doctor across from her. McKay glared back, and for a few moments, the two doctors from widely different disciplines stared each other down from across the work bench. They had been cooped up in this room of the SGC after an off world team had brought back an unknown contagion. It had only been about three hours, and Cassie was seriously considering braining the supposed genius over the head with his own laptop.

"Do you have any food?" McKay broke first, the rumbling in his stomach driving away his irritation in the hopes of filling his stomach.

"I have some candies, but they'll just give you a sugar rush," Cassie said, her tone annoyed as she began rummaging through her pockets.

"Seriously?" McKay whined, his eyes widening. "All you have are a few candies? Perfect, just perfect. Another dumb blonde."

Cassie's eyes widened at the insult. "Oh I'm sorry Dr. Snarkypants, I keep my MREs in my other jumpsuit – _since we're on base._" She sneered as she pulled out a handful of sweets. "God, are you like this all the time? I'm amazed Sam hasn't shot you yet."

"She secretly wants me," said McKay conversationally as he unwrapped the candy. "We have this whole sexual tension thing going on."

Cassie's face perfectly illustrated her disbelief and disgust as McKay popped the sweet into his mouth. Almost immediately, the scientist's mouth puckered into a tight o shape, and he blinked as his mouth watered.

"What the hell is this?" McKay demanded around the candy in his mouth. He swirled the sweet around on his tongue for a moment trying to identify the flavour and the sensation that had his tongue curling.

"Lemon drop," Cassie said as she popped one into her own mouth, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment as she savoured the tartness. "They were my mum's favourite treat next to peppermints. Jack likes them too."

"_Lemon_," breathed out McKay, his mouth dropping open in horror, revealing the yellow candy still fizzing away on his tongue. "I'm allergic to citrus – you've just killed me. Sam actually convinced her mini-me to kill me."

"Oh relax," huffed Cassie, rolling her eyes. "It's flavoured by amyl acetate or something, not actual citrus. Don't be such a hypochondriac."

"Oh perfect," said McKay gruffly, "A mini-doc too. This is a conspiracy; Sheppard put you up to this didn't he?"

"You're just mad because you like it," Cassie snapped back, but with little heat in her words. She pushed over another few candies. "Just wait a moment, the tartness goes away, and then it's really sweet."

McKay gave her a glare for good measure, but found that she was right. He felt his tongue loosening from the tart tightening earlier, and found himself enjoying the sweetness.

"You know," said Cassie in an amused tone, "It's ironic that you're allergic to lemons. They perfectly describe your personality. This candy totally tastes like you."

"Yeah right," said McKay, but he found himself smiling as he reached over to unwrap another candy and popped it in his mouth.


	9. Middles

**.002 – Middles**

Cassie lay quietly staring out the window of her quarters, mesmerized by the glowing white stripe that was the arm of the Milky Way galaxy. She had been unable to get to sleep; she could never adjust well to time in space because of the lack of day in night. In space, you were always in limbo. Cassie was amused to think that she was stuck between day and night much as she was between galaxies.

It had been almost thirteen years since Cassie had first stepped through the Stargate; back when she lived on a farming world far out into the expanse of the Milky Way galaxy. Cassie remembered being scared at first, of the strange aliens in yellow suits that found her on that distant, dead world. She hadn't known then that those people would become her new family; that they would surround her with stories of epic adventures all through her years growing up.

Cassie thought it was one of the great ironies of the universe that she ended up joining the Stargate program herself. At first, she had only worked at the SGC; unable to rid her childish fear of the Stargate that had once made her so sick. After a few years, however, she began to grow comfortable with it – even cherishing it for all the wonderful people it had brought into her life. 

It was fitting, she thought, that she would now take her journey one step further. No longer would she be an alien living on Earth; now she would be an alien to an entire galaxy. Cassie found herself equally excited and scared to be going off on such an adventure.

It was fitting, Cassie decided, that she should take this step from her old life on Earth to her new life in the Stargate program by going to a whole different galaxy. She felt as though she was moving forward in the great story of her life; from humble beginnings on a farming planet, to researching new cultures in an ancient city run by fascinating technologies her people could never have imagined. It was the start of a new chapter, with new experiences and people.

Cassie smiled as she finally found rest on Midway.


	10. Rubber

**.099 – Rubber**

"Does this object hold some great significance in your culture?" Teyla Emmagen, the Athosian member of SGA-1 picked the ball out of one of the many boxes that littered Cassie's desk.

"What?" asked Cassie, who was distracted by balancing a stack of heavy books on a shelf, "Oh, no. It's just something a friend of mine does, and I've caught his bad habit."

"I see," said Teyla, her voice conveying that she was completely confused.

"Well, it's kina funny. Every time you find a rubber band – they're used to hold things together – you add it to this ball," Cassie rummaged around in the desk until she found a rubber band. She took the ball from Teyla and carefully positioned the band among the colourful mass. "It gets bigger and more cool looking if you find different types of elastic bands."

"What purpose does this serve?" asked Teyla. "The more of these . . . elastic bands you add together, does it increase their value or usefulness?"

"Um," Cassie blushed, and rolled the ball back and forth on the desk in embarrassment. "Not really. It's just fun to see something small grow bigger the more you add to it. Although…" She grinned playfully and bounced the ball of elastic off the desk. "They're kind of fun if you get really bored while doing your work."

"Hmm," said Teyla. Nothing more was said about the rubber ball, and Teyla helped the young woman from Earth unpack the rest of her things.

The next day, Cassie had just finished discussing some translations with Sam when McKay stormed angrily towards them with Colonel Sheppard trailing behind with an extremely amused look on his face.

"You!" snarled McKay, pointing an imperious finger at the two women. "You're conspiring to drive me insane, is that it?"

"Rodney," sighed Sam, raising two fingers to her temple. "What are you talking about."

"Getting your minion to poison me with citrus wasn't enough," hissed McKay, "But this is unconscionable, cruel, and – and – _wrong_!"

"McKay, I _told_ you, it was only lemon _flavoured_," said Cassie, rolling her eyes. "I just got here yesterday, what could I _possibly_ have plotted to do to you in such a short time?"

"_You stole my rubber bands!_" shouted McKay, his face turning a rather comical shade of red. Cassie and Sam just looked at one another, then Colonel Sheppard, then back to McKay.

"_What?_" said Sam, completely flummoxed. 

"Oh," said Cassie, her eyes widening in amusement. "Erm, I wondered where she got them from…"

"What are you talking about?" snapped McKay. "Didn't you take them?"

Cassie opened her mouth to reply, when Teyla appeared around the corner, a large smile on her face. 

"Dr. Fraiser," the normally serene woman said, sounding very amused. "I am most indebted to you for sharing with me the secrets of the rubber ball. I believe you were understating its use as a stress relief." Teyla produced a small, but still moderately sized ball of rubber bands; bouncing it up and down on the deck a few times in childish glee. "I believe Ronon was looking for you, he would also like to learn the secrets of this device."

Cassie broke down into giggles as McKay's jaw dropped, and he began accosting his team-mate for her theft of his property, while Colonel Sheppard and Sam tried to run interference. Who knew a little rubber would cause such a big problem? 


	11. Yellow

**.013 – Yellow**

Cassie was bored as _hell_.

Being assigned to an ancient city in a completely alien galaxy filled with a mix of the best and brightest from around the world was a dream job; or so Jack had promised when he'd shoved the assignment papers into her hand a month ago. Who wouldn't want to be at the front line of exploring a galaxy rich in cultures that hadn't been extolled in the mythos of ancient Earth?

What decidedly was _not_ mentioned was the fact that she couldn't go off-base.

"This," Cassie said in a frustrated voice, "is ridiculous."

"You don't have military training, Cass," said Sam, trying to placate her surrogate daughter. "It's just not proper –"

"_McKay_ gets to go," pouted Cassie, "McKay, terminally-terrified-of-lemons, McKay. Are you seriously saying he'd be better off than me in a hostile situation? I was raised by you, Jack and Teal'c for cryin' out loud."

Sam's lips had twitched at the familiar phrase, but she quite vehemently denied Cassie permission to go off world, no matter how much Cassie pleaded and prodded.

So Cassie had been shut up in her admittedly roomy office for the past week with little more to occupy her than the backlog of command translations that were needed for day-to-day running of Atlantis.

"It's like… a really fancy box," Cassie had met up with Major Lorne in the cafeteria earlier to rant about her situation. The young Major was one of the personnel that had once been stationed at SGC. Once he had gotten over his shock of her no longer being the wide-eyed teenager that would wait for Doctor Fraiser, the two had bonded quite well over shared memories of the SGC. "A fancy, stupid, grey box. I'm honestly going crazy. I think I'd kill to see a real flower, rock, or tree."

"Well," chuckled the Major, "be good and maybe I'll bring you a pet rock."

As Cassie stared at the mind numbing litany of command prompts that needed to be translated, she pondered begging Major Lorne for that pet rock. Or maybe she'd but Teyla to help her steal some sort of plant type thing from the biology lab. Cassie sighed and let her head rest on the desk, deciding that she needed a nap to escape the absurdity.

When she awoke two hours later, her eyes opened up to an impossibly bright expanse of yellow. She blinked for a few moments, confused, and her eyelashes had the strange feeling of brushing against something. When she finally brushed the cobwebs from her mind, she realised that she had somehow been relocated from her desk to her bed in her quarters; and now had a yellow something covering her face.

Cassie pulled the offending item from her face and brushed at her nose where the petals had been tickling it. _Petals_, Cassie thought in surprise and delight, as she rolled over towards the lamp to get a better view of the object in her hand.

It was a giant sunflower, with perfect yellow petals streaming cheerily out from a big brown button centre. She grinned with delight, and stroked the soft edges of the flower with a gentle finger.

From then on, she would walk in every few weeks to see a different flower on her desk, (Major Lorne swore he had nothing to do with it, although he _did_ bring her a pet rock once) it was always replaced by the time it started to wilt with a fresh one. But they all had the same thing in common; they were all that beautiful, sunny yellow.


	12. If

**.082 – If**

"If" was a concept known to everyone; something that could be thought of every day, with the slightest provocation, and then dismissed without much effort.

If you lived near a Stargate, however, "if" happened a lot more often than normal.

Between quantum mirrors and solar flares, people at both the SGC in the Milky Way and the base in Atlantis not only thought about their "ifs", but often met them face to face. Innumerable instances of either time travel or alternate universes had resulted in many people's questions of "what if" to be answered.

Today, Cassie was having a conversation with hers.

"So," Cassie said, taking a sip of her apple juice while her double dug into the steak with gusto, "You've been with SGA – 1 for… three years?"

"Almost four," the other her corrected. Unlike the Cassandra Fraiser of this universe, she preferred to be called 'Sandra', something that always made Cassie shudder. "I went through to help Jack with translating ancient artefacts. Our Daniel Jackson had been killed on a mission two years prior, so I was the next best thing."

"But you're military," commented Cassie, who ate more slowly trying to prolong their discussion. "I'd never really considered it – I actually thought of going into medicine."

"I'd learned a lot of it over the years," Sandra defended her skills. "'Sides, with Jack as a father, military was really the only way. Sam wanted me to get a degree though, so I enrolled in the United States Air Force Academy, got a bachelor in science."

"Sam and Jack, huh," said Cassie, an amused smile lighting up her face. "They're together in your universe?"

Cassandra was momentarily worried when Sandra just stared at her with wide eyes, and then the woman burst out into laughter that sounded identical to her own.

"Sorry, it's just –" Sandra wiped her eyes with one hand, "We've had a few run-ins with other realities too – and that's always one of the first questions. Guess its one of those constants, huh? Yeah, they are. My Sam is a civilian now; she retired her commission after adopting me. They got hitched about seven years ago. It was a slight shock to see your version as a full bird Colonel; mom will be so jealous."

"Yeah," Cassie frowned. "Hey – in your universe, do you have a Dr. Fraiser?"

"Yeah," said Sandra, with a smile. "She's always been nice to me since I was a kid. Jack snipes about her trying to kill him with needles sometimes, but she's very close with my family. Why, is she important?"

"She was," said Cassie softly. "She was my mother." The other her caught on to the use of 'was', and paused in her eating.

"Oh," said Sandra, her eyes softening. "I'm so sorry."

"It's ok," Cassie brushed off the concern, feeling uncomfortable discussing this with a version of herself who hadn't had the painful experience of losing two mothers. She tried to steer the topic back to lighter things, such as gossip about her newfound coworkers. "Is McKay as annoying in your city?"

"McKay was assigned to the SGC when Sam came over with Jack," Sandra replied, wrinkling her nose in memory of the hyperactive scientific genius. "Otherwise, things are pretty much the same. It's funny to see Ronon with all that hair again. He was so fussy when he had to cut it off after we ran into the spiders on M3D-293."

"Ronon, huh," Cassie said with a grin. "You two seemed close in the briefing room."

"We're, um, it's –" Sandra blushed heavily, and Cassie laughed. "It's complicated. Are you and he –"

"Oh," Cassie exclaimed, a blush stealing over her cheeks as well. "Uh, I don't actually know him. I only talked to him once, back at the SGC." The other her nodded, and the two continued trading stories of their team-mates and coworkers respectively.

When it was time to send the other team back, Cassie leaned on the railing above the embarkation room to get a final look at the alternate team. As she watched her double disappear, she found herself imagining new "ifs". She wondered if the versions of her in other universes still lived on Hanaka; or if Janet was still alive. If she was even alive, in those other worlds.

As her universe's flagship team climbed the stairs joking and laughing amongst themselves, she wondered if she would have fit in as one of them. As the tall Satedan man brushed by her, she found herself blushing and wondering some significantly more feasible "ifs". Not everyone in every universe ended up with the same people, right?

But…What if?


	13. Christmas

_A/N:__ Hey, I wanted to thank you all for your amazing compliments; it means so much to me that you guys like this wacky colection of stories! This one is a bit longer than the others (over a thousand words ) so it's not really a drabble or a flash fic by definition anymore. I was thinking of writing the rest of this holiday out as a full length oneshot with other characters involved - is anyone interested? Let me know in a review! Also: an incident toward the end is _not_ slash, though you may see it that way if it makes you happy! ENJOY!_

**.092 – Christmas**

"Dr., do you need help with that?" Chuck, the Atlantis gate technician asked.

"Nope," chirped Cassie as she hefted the large box into her arms. She gave Chuck a huge smile as she adjusted her grip. "Are you staying in Atlantis, or are you home for the holidays?"

"I'm going on the last group out to Midway at 1600 hours," replied Chuck, eying Cassie as she slowly began walking with the heavy box. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"It's nothing," grunted Cassie as she made her way cautiously up the stairs, the box blocking her view of the steps. "Happy Christmas, Chuck! Bring me back a snowball."

Chuck shook his head as the young translator moved out of sight; and began preparing to dial out with the next group going home.

About ten minutes and two extremely tired triceps later, Cassie was wandering down one of the brightly lit corridors. Cassie sighed and shifted the box in her grip, praying for strength as she had another five corridors to go. Just as she was beginning to think of giving up and dragging the box behind her, she bumped into someone.

"Whoa," Cassie yelped, and struggled to keep her grip. "I'm so sorry; I can't see, this box is huge –" Suddenly, the box was taken from her arms, and she blinked as she saw the tall Satedan member of SGA – 1.

"It's all right," Ronon Dex said; quirking an eyebrow. "Where are you taking this?"

"Kitchen," replied Cassie. Before she could open her mouth to protest, the tall man had turned around and began walking down the corridor with easy, confident strides. Cassie hurried forward to catch up. "You know, I was totally fine carrying that box."

"Uh huh," said Ronon, his low voice conveying his disbelief. "That's why you looked like you were about to topple over. You're the new doctor, right? McKay was talking about you."

"Is he _still_ going on about the lemons?" Cassie sighed, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I'm Dr. Fraiser, but call me –"

"Cassie," finished Ronon.

"Yeah," Cassie said with a smile and a blush. "You remembered."

"Hmm." Ronon grunted, and turned into the kitchen. He set the box down on the empty island in the centre and looked at it curiously. "What's in this thing? It weighs almost as much as McKay."

"Well," said Cassie, looking around for others surreptitiously. "I'll show you, but you can't tell anyone. It's a surprise for tomorrow." Ronon didn't say anything, just quirked his eyebrow again and crossed his arms over his broad chest. Cassie took this to mean he agreed, and eagerly opened the box. She took out a few parcels that were rapped in colourful paper and put them to the side before climbing onto a stool and leaning into the box. She struggled to get her hands underneath her prize, and carefully lifted it out of the box.

"A dead bird," deadpanned Ronon. "You people give strange gifts."

"It's not a dead bird," snapped Cassie without heat. "Well, yeah, but it's a _turkey_." She grinned, but it fell off her face as the man's expression didn't change. "You mean you've been with the SGC for four years and _no one explained Christmas?_"

"That's the one with the fat guy that steals toys from children, right?" said Ronon. Cassie sighed, and moved the precious turkey over to the refrigerator. She came back and pushed Ronon over to the stools and made him sit down while she unloaded the various decorations and Christmas paraphernalia included in the box.

"Yeah, I didn't get it either," said Cassie patiently as she sat down across from the tall man. "But after a few years, and some _excellent_ presents from Jack, Christmas became my favourite holiday. So, there's this guy called St. Nick…"

About two hours, and several batches of Christmas cookies later, Cassie was finishing up her explanation of the holiday to Ronon who had been dubbed Cassie's taste tester once she found out about his voracious appetite. He was currently finishing off a plate of shortbread that Cassie had made while the young doctor stuck her head in the fridge to check on the huge turkey she was in the process of defrosting.

"Earth has strange traditions," said Ronon as he poked through the mass of decorations that Vala had selected to be put in the box. While there were normal things like tinsel and lights, the ex-con had thrown in some balloons that said 'Happy 80th Birthday!" and streamers that said "Happy Halloween" in creepy blood red script. "What's with the dead plant?"

"Hmmm?" said Cassie distractedly as she set about rummaging through the second refrigerator for vegetables to complete the dinner. She didn't hear Ronon get up from his seat as she bent over to look through the drawer that contained the carrots and small onions, but felt him behind her as she straightened up. She started, and turned; craning her neck upwards to look at his face. "What plant?"

"This," Ronon held the sprig of mistletoe in the small space between them, and Cassie felt her entire face go red. "Is it edible?" The Satedan eyed the plant as though seriously contemplating eating it.

"No!" shouted Cassie as she reached for it. Ronon smirked and held the plant above his head and beyond Cassie's reach. She glared up at him through her bangs. "Give it, you can't eat it. Vala just put it in there to annoy me; I'll go throw it out."

"What is it?" teased Ronon as Cassie hopped up to try and grab it.

"Mistletoe," Cassie forced out, and pouted when she couldn't reach the plant. "It's a weird custom. If two people walk under the mistletoe, they can't leave until they've kissed each other."

"Hmm," said the Satedan, eyeing the plant with a mischievous look in his eyes. He looked down at the doctor with a wicked smile. "They have to kiss you?"

"Uh," said Cassie, rather unintelligently. The thoughts that had run through her head when she had been talking to the alternate universe version of herself came flooding back, and she swallowed thickly as she nodded her head. She felt her heart pound, and realized that there were only a few centimetres between her and the tall alien.

"You!" came an indignant shout from the doorway to the kitchen. Ronon and Cassie turned their heads to see the origin of the noise. "You're going to poison the food supply with more _lemons_ aren't you?"

"McKay," growled Cassie, feeling annoyed by the scientist's timing. "I swear to _God –_"

"McKay," Ronon said in a smooth tone, walking towards the scientist who looked wary of the innocent look on the bigger man's face. "Do you celebrate Christmas in Canada?"

"Of course we do, you big wookie," snapped the scientist. "Why, are you trying to invite yourself over to Jeanie's for free food –" McKay's jaw dropped as Ronon placed the mistletoe above the scientist's head. "What are you – _Ronon?_" The scientist spluttered as Ronon kissed him on the forehead in a ridiculous manner.

Cassie stared at the team-mates in wide-eyed disbelief before collapsing to the floor laughing her head off as McKay started shouting angrily at Ronon who gave a fake pout and insisted the McKay kiss him back, because it was Christmas, and an Earth custom. Cassie's laughter doubled when McKay and Ronon ran in circles around the kitchen as the military man teased the scientist.

Even though she was away from home, Cassie found herself having a very merry Christmas indeed.


	14. Write

**.083 – Write**

"Wake up," a low voice rumbles near Cassie's ear. Cassie frowns in her sleep and swats a hand towards whatever is interrupting her nap. "Cassandra Fraiser, you must awaken."

"Ngghh," groans Cassie, as she opens her eyes blearily. "S'too early," she whines, rubbing a hand over her eyes. She froze as she realized that she wasn't stretched out on her bunk at the SGC, but was lying on a hospital bed in the infirmary.

"Do not go to sleep, Cassandra," warned Teal'c as her eyelids started to flutter with exhaustion. "You hit your head as a result of the stunning device, and Dr. Lam believes you have a concussion."

"Stunning device?" Cassie asked, her tongue feeling heavy as her head throbs in pain. "I was just leaving my interview with the I.O.A. and then the gate activation alarm sounded –" She closed her eyes briefly before opening them to look at Teal'c in confusion.

"The wraith came through by hijacking the Midway station," explained Teal'c. "They sent through a device which stunned everyone in the SGC. Luckily, Ronon Dex and myself were able to defeat them."

"Oh," said Cassie, surprised at the events. "That's good. When can I get back to Atlantis?"

"Unfortunately," Teal'c said with a regretful tone, "Midway had to self destruct. The Dedalus will ferry yourself and Ronon Dex back to Atlantis as soon as he has completed his interview."

"So Sam's training idea went ok?" asked Cassie, as Teal'c helped her sit up.

"Indeed," said Teal'c with a smile. Cassie blinked in surprise as Teal'c quirked an eyebrow. "He was correct. I do say that with alarming frequency."

"Teal'c?" questioned Cassie, an amused glint in her eyes.

"It is nothing," the Jaffa stated with a smile.

"This thing," Cassie gestured to the cast around her right wrist, "is going to be a pain. I'm going to have to type out my translations – I hate doing that. Daniel is right; books and notepads feel so much more _real_."

"It will not be for long," comforted Teal'c. "By the time you reach Atlantis, it will only be about another week until you can remove it."

"Hurrah for being an advanced human," Cassie joked, as she scratched absently above the short cast. "Want to sign it? I can go around collecting signatures to amuse myself for the two week cab ride home."

Teal'c inclined his head, and took a permanent marker from the nearby doctor's desk. Cassie held out her wrist and looked away while Teal'c gently scribbled on her cast. She frowned as she brought the arm back towards her to read what he wrote.

"Teal'c," she said in a confused voice, "why did you write gate address?"

"So you may take a piece of your old world to your new one," he replied with a smile. Cassie grinned, and ran a finger over the black symbols; underneath which Teal'c neat script in Goa'uld simply says 'A'rush'; home.


End file.
